


missed connections

by minroll



Category: Hololive
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:41:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27038875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minroll/pseuds/minroll
Summary: Kiara’s still looking at her. Slowly, a smirk crosses her lips. “I don’t believe a single word you say,” Kiara says, pointing an accusing finger to Calliope’s chest. “You show me a lot of emotions whenever we’re together! I know you like playing the ‘hard-to-get’ personality, but deep down you’re secretly happy, aren’t you?” Kiara has a shit-eating grin on her face right now and if Calliope was in the right state of mind, she would’ve pushed the Phoenix off the cliff.Calliope and Kiara side by side, and always will be. A snippet from one of their many conversations over the years.
Relationships: Takanashi Kiara & Mori Calliope, Takanashi Kiara/Mori Calliope
Comments: 15
Kudos: 280





	missed connections

Calliope’s here again. The same view of the rocky cliff and village in the distance greets her like home. There’s no sign of vegetation, and the dull grey of the surface looks almost welcoming in the sunset. She walks over to the edge. The morbid curiosity of what would happen if she walked off almost overtakes her, but she simply sits down on the ledge instead. 

The wind blows past Calliope once, swaying her hair, and then dies off. She glares at the direct sunlight; its rays are bleeding out onto the horizon, all liquid and golden. Sighing, she crosses her arms and looks down at the village. The people are still up and working, a hub of life and constant movement. Some humans are working in the fields while some carry around supplies to their small shops. Nothing too interesting.

Death-sensei had given her a rare break. **You’ve done well for the past millennium, my dear apprentice. Why don’t you rest for today and go have fun in the human world? I heard the medicine is improving and death rates are slowing down!** Death-sensei’s new shades were probably affecting him, Calliope reasons. But what did her Sensei expect her to do if he was the one who set up restrictions in the first place?

A few minutes of staring and bird-watching pass by. 

Calliope gets up, sparing one last look at the village.

Just as she’s about to turn around and leave, a loud sound rings out in the distance like a bee buzzing around her ear.

“Kikkerikiiiii!!” 

Calliope facepalms so hard that she feels a hand imprint coming up. 

“Calliii!!” Kiara comes barrelling into her, sending them stumbling a few centimetres too close to the edge.

The Reaper immediately turns around and shrugs Kiara off, glaring at her. “Why are you here, Kiara?” _Why are you here when I’m the one who’s always chasing you?_ she almost asks. 

“I died!” Kiara says cheerfully. “But I didn’t see you in the Underworld, so I went to Death and asked where you were!” 

Calliope massages her temples. “Look, I was just about to leave—” 

“This view is so nice!” Kiara cuts Calliope off, looking past her. Kiara’s jaw is open in amazement, eyes sparkling like jewels. “Hey, how’d you find this spot?” She marches over to the edge, plopping down on the hard surface, legs dangling.

“By chance,” Calliope says. She can’t tell her she found this spot because someone’s soul was lingering here. Internally groaning, Calliope walks over and sits down next to Kiara. She crosses one leg over the other and folds her arms.

“That’s lucky,” Kiara murmurs. 

Calliope glances at her. Kiara’s watching the village, the setting sun on her face and long lashes freckled with glitter and gold. There’s something somber to her expression, so intensely personal that Calliope feels she’s intruding for having looked at her. She averts her gaze.

The silence drags on in a way that Calliope’s unfamiliar with in Kiara’s company. She opens her mouth to speak, but the words die in her throat. (“Are the people that interesting?” and “why are you so fond of them?” and “come home to my heart. I can’t stop thinking about you—why do you choose to hang out with me again and again at the end of the day?” Calliope backtracks. No. Not that last one. Never that last one. She’ll keep those words hidden, locked away in a corner of her heart where no one will ever reach or see.) She chooses to focus on Kiara’s line of sight in the village. 

The humans are doing what humans always do, Calliope thinks in mild contempt. They’re dawdling around, crying and laughing and being… human. **You are to remain professional and maintain a healthy distance from anything human-related,** Death-sensei’s voice echoes in her head. She swears she can feel his presence over her shoulder, watching her every move. 

Calliope subtly shakes her head, ridding herself of unnecessary thoughts. Next, she slows down, trying to adopt Kiara’s soft, soft heart. 

There: red tulips blooming in the crack on the ground, flourishing tenfold through neglect.

There: a pack of children running and laughing boisterously in a bubble of their own world, playing and avoiding adults. One child trips over a rock but even then, the spell of fun doesn’t break. 

There: water running in the stream, clear and alive. Humans nearby stop to cup their hands and drink from it. One of them has a big grin on their face like they’re content with everything in their life. 

Calliope frowns.

As if on cue, Kiara makes her presence known again by tugging on Calliope’s sleeve. The small action leaves a spot of warmth on her. 

“What is it now?” Calliope turns to look at Kiara and finds the Phoenix focused on one point in the village. 

“Look!” Kiara exclaims, stars in her eyes and hand pointing. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could also get married like them?” she asks, a dreamy sigh and all that at the end of her sentence. A couple embraces each other in the town square, smiles on their faces and eyes looking only at each other. 

The glint of the couple’s rings are bright even from this far up, but all Calliope can focus on is the awestruck expression of the girl beside her. Her eyes are pools of molten gold and amethyst under the sunset, kaleidoscopes of emotion that Calliope has yet to understand, but she finds herself falling deeper and deeper—

Kiara’s laughter breaks Calliope’s trance. Oh. She’s giggling at something in the distance. 

Calliope still hasn’t said a word. 

“Calli?” And now Kiara’s looking at her with that confused expression that makes her want to pinch her cheeks. 

_Hey, do you really mean that?_ Calliope wants to scream. 

Instead, she shoots her an unapproving look.

“Nope,” Calliope says, monotone as usual. 

“Ehh? Come on, let’s get married!” Kiara pouts, swinging her legs and arms in mock frustration. “I bet you’re in love with me but just denying everything,” she comments, throwing a confident wink at the Reaper.

“That’s your opinion—I beg to differ,” Calliope says, narrowing her eyes for emphasis. “I can’t fall in love. Most of my emotions were wiped out when I became Death-sensei’s apprentice.”

It’s easy. To pretend none of this banter means anything; to deflect Kiara’s antics and move on. Meanwhile, the unsaid burning between them, unresolved and always pushed aside by none other than Calliope herself. 

Kiara’s eyes are mysteriously shiny. “That sounds so sad.” She leans right into Calliope’s face, searching her eyes, and doesn’t notice the pink tint on the Reaper’s face. “You’re lying, aren’t you?” 

Calliope grumbles lowly and leans back, glaring at her. “Why would I be lying? Human emotions are unneeded and will only interfere with work,” she says. 

Kiara’s still looking at her. Slowly, a smirk crosses her lips. “I don’t believe a single word you say,” Kiara says, pointing an accusing finger to Calliope’s chest. “You show me a lot of emotions whenever we’re together! I know you like playing the ‘hard-to-get’ personality, but deep down you’re secretly happy, aren’t you?” Kiara has a shit-eating grin on her face right now and if Calliope was in the right state of mind, she would’ve pushed the Phoenix off the cliff. 

Calliope feels her heart rate picking up (out of anger, she reasons) and instead of using her words, she raises her hand to flick Kiara on the forehead. 

The girl lets out a pained cry, immediately leaning back and clutching her forehead. 

“You deserved that.” Calliope ignores Kiara’s whining, looking towards the horizon. The sun’s almost gone and the sky’s a colour she likes a lot—a mix of purple and red and pink, familiar in a way where she can look beside her and find those same colours reflected back at her. 

Kiara looks, too. 

A beat passes. 

Then Kiara makes an innocuous little noise, gets up and pats the dust off her skirt. 

Calliope also gets up. 

“I better get going.” Kiara’s gaze is fixated on a faraway point in the sky. 

Calliope thinks Kiara looks dimensions away right now, forever stuck in a dream. But she’s here—real and warm and _here_. She could reach out right now and take hold of her, tell her to _stay_ —

She can’t. 

Kiara looks back at her, eyes hopeful yet sure at the same time. “See you later.” She walks off the edge, first taking a step on air, but then she sprouts a pair of fiery wings that take her far, far away from the grasps of death. 

Now it’s just Calliope, the world and her, wretched with love.

It’s alright. It has to be. She’s promised herself she wouldn’t wallow anymore. 

So she picks herself up and keeps going.

**Author's Note:**

> this fic had been rotting in my google drive for three weeks so i decided to post it! i will (hopefully) be writing more for this pair bc their dynamic is just gold. maybe a longer winter-themed fic next? 
> 
> thank you for reading!


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